


new moon in mid-heaven

by blackkat



Series: Crossover and Fusion Drabbles [19]
Category: Bleach, Naruto
Genre: Dimension Travel, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, but it's pretty much just gen, there's a touch of Akon/Shuuhei if you squint hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 01:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16801057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: Kensei just expected to drag his wayward lieutenant back from whatever alternate dimension he had tripped into. What he wasn't counting on was the tagalong.





	new moon in mid-heaven

“This had _better_ work,” Kensei informs Akon, and if his hand hovers closer to Tachikaze’s hilt than is strictly necessary, well. It’s been a stressful couple of days.

Akon doesn’t even do him the courtesy of _pretending_ to notice his unspoken _or else_. He makes a distracted sound, eyes narrowed as he studies one of the displays, and his fingers are practically a blur over the keys. “I think this is him,” he says, and it’s touched with something like surprise.

“You _think_?” Kensei says dangerously, and he’s not tall enough to loom over practically anyone except Mashiro, but he makes his best attempt. Not that that’s noticed either. Kensei _hates_ the Twelfth Division.

With a hum, Akon hits three buttons, pulls a lever, and turns, sweeping a look over the cleared platform. “Tracking people across dimensions isn't exactly easy, Captain Muguruma,” he says dryly. “Especially not when they're moving around as Shūhei seems to be.”

Kensei hides a grimace. Shūhei’s smart enough to stay put and know they’ll come looking for him; if he’s bouncing around all over the other world, it means he _can't_ stay in one place, and that’s a bad sign. It makes Kensei bristle, the thought of Shūhei and his ridiculous moral code and his lack of willingness to draw his sword trapped in another world, probably running for his life, while they just _stand here_.

And then Akon makes a sound of victory, even if it’s laconic as always. He steps forward, and Kensei twitches and turns sharply to look, and—

A shimmering patch of air, several feet above the platform. Human-sized, but oddly bulky, and Kensei has his zanpakutō out before it even comes clear. He catches a shimmer streaking out as the shape condenses, thin and fast, and his heart leaps. Not fear, not anger, but _relief_.

Kazeshini’s scythe rebounds off Tachikaze’s blade, whirls back, and Shūhei catches it as he appears. The chain sweeps up, coils, falls, and Shūhei lands lightly and spins.

“ _Kid_ ,” Kensei says, and then, “You goddamned _idiot_.”

Akon rolls his eyes.

“Captain!” Shūhei says, stunned, like it’s a _surprise_ Kensei would be here, dragging his wayward lieutenant back from whatever alternate dimension he tripped into. Hastily, Shūhei trips upright, catching Kazeshini on its rebound, and he brings the two scythes together, lets them fade back into a katana that he sheathes over his shoulder. It’s a movement Kensei has seen a thousand times, but this time it’s just a little more awkward, hindered by the bundle of cloth clinging to Shūhei’s chest.

“ _Shūhei_ ,” he snaps, and Shūhei’s spine straightens like there’s a string attached to it that just hauled him up. “Is that a _kid_?”

The bundle in question shifts, picks its head up. Dark hair, big eyes—that’s _definitely_ a kid, and just as definitely not one Kensei knows. He’s clinging to Shūhei like a leech, practically plastered to him, and he’s got a death-grip on Shūhei’s shihakusho that says it’s going to take a hell of a lot to remove him by force.

“Sir!” Shūhei says, and it’s that one tone Kensei can't decide if he hates or loves; pure adherence to protocol, that inflection, but because it’s Shūhei it also has a very distinct undertone of _fuck you and the horse you rode in on_. Kensei would be proud, except he’s the one who always has to suffer through whatever fit of pique has brought that tone on. “There were unexpected complications in the other world, Captain.”

“Oh yeah?” Kensei asks sourly, sheathing Tachikaze and folding his arms across his chest. He eyes the tagalong, and the shrimp eyes him back, very obviously distrustful. “Does this unexpected complication have a name?”

“Uchiha Sasuke,” the kid says, like it’s a dare. He’s _tiny_. Kensei isn't the best at guessing human ages, but he’s going to say not more than eight here. He squints judgmentally, and the kid glares back, which—okay, that’s kind of admirable.

“At least he’s not crying,” he says, and gives Shūhei a meaningful look.

Shūhei flushes. “Captain!” he splutters.

Kensei smirks, because that’s the idiot he knows and loves. “Come down here, kid. Akon, anything to worry about?”

Akon glances up from his readouts, then over at Shūhei, and waves a hand in lazy greeting. “Nothing apparent,” he says. “Shūhei. Good to see you in one piece.”

Shūhei smiles at him, stepping down off the platform, and says, “Thank you, Akon.”

One corner of Akon’s mouth curls, and he tips his head. “You know I always like a challenge,” he says. “Doorways to alternate dimensions is a new one.”

“I'm glad it was you,” Shūhei says, and then promptly flushes as Akon smirks. Of _course_. Kensei rolls his eyes so hard they're in danger of falling out, then hooks an arm around Shūhei’s shoulders.

“Come on,” he says, tugging his lieutenant away. “Mashiro’s been going nuts. She’ll be happy to see you.”

The _I'm happy to see you_ is a little more loudly implied than Kensei would prefer, but it’s true enough.

Sasuke looks from Kensei to Shūhei and back again. “This is your captain?” he asks warily.

Still a little red in the face, Shūhei nods. “This is Captain Muguruma Kensei of the Ninth Division,” he says formally. “Captain, Uchiha Sasuke. He was…”

Kensei glances at Shūhei, watches him struggle for words for a moment, and sighs. “In a bad situation?” he prompts. It’s probably an understatement. Shūhei wouldn’t have grabbed him otherwise, and with the shrimp’s death-grip on Shūhei he likely doesn’t have a lot else to cling to.

“My brother murdered my clan,” Sasuke tells him, and it’s sharp and angry and full of a sort of terrified grief. Kensei can see Shūhei tighten his grip, pulling Sasuke closer to his chest, and the hard edges that slide into grey eyes. Shūhei’s _angry_ , and that doesn’t happen often. Doesn’t happen at _all_ , really; Kensei's seen it once, maybe twice in the decades since he returned to the Seireitei. He glances at his lieutenant, raising a brow, and Shūhei meets his eyes over the top of Sasuke's head, mouths _At least four hundred_ , and Kensei's blood turns to fucking _ice_.

Four hundred dead at the hands of one man? That sounds like an Aizen sort of situation. Sounds like Sasuke getting out alive was chance, or maybe some kind of scheme for maximum suffering.

“Well, that asshole’s not gonna get you too,” Kensei says, and it comes out gruffer than he intends, but he means it. It’s not as if he was planning to send Sasuke _back_ ; if Shūhei brought him here, there was a good reason. Still, he’s _definitely_ not going back now. “Screw it, the Ninth needs a mascot anyway. Kid, you're hired.”

“I am?” Sasuke sounds startled, and he glances up at Shūhei in bewilderment.

Shūhei gives him a small smile in return, and it’s enough to remind Kensei that a good ninety percent of the Shinigami who knew him at the Academy still call him _senpai_. Shūhei’s just that kind of person. “I told you the captain would agree,” he says, and pulls the cloak up a little higher over Sasuke's shoulders. “Lieutenant Kuna will accept you, too.”

Mashiro’s going to _smother_ the kid. Both kids. Kensei wasn’t exaggerating how much of a tailspin Shūhei’s disappearance threw her into. “Your funeral,” Kensei tells them both equally, but he tightens his grip on Shūhei, pulls him just a little closer. It’s still so easy to remember the little crybaby brat Kensei saved that day, who tried to save his friends but was still just a kid waving a stick at a Hollow. Shūhei’s grown a lot, over the years, but—

His heart hasn’t changed much.

“You’re going to be doing paperwork for the next _year_ for scaring the shit out of me,” Kensei tells him. “So you’ll have plenty of time to babysit.”

Shūhei’s mouth drops open. “ _Captain_!” he protests, even as Sasuke makes a noise of compete indignation. Kensei just gives him a grin that’s all teeth and drags him out of the Twelfth, back into the sunlight.


End file.
